The Keliy of the Old Testament, The Hoplon of the New

It's interesting to consider the use of the term "musical instrument" in Scripture. Our present usage of the phrase could possibly skew our understanding of the place and sanction of musical instruments in worship, particularly in the Levitical sacrificial system as compared to now.

In the Bible, the Hebrew word keliy is often translated by the word "instrument."  But it's also variously translated "furniture," "articles," "weapons," "clothing," "baggage," armor," "yoke," "tool," "implement," "jar," "vessel," and "equipment." Strong's defines keliy as "an article, a vessel, an implement, a utensil, a tool." The various keliy were often those things which had a common use; but sometimes keliy is used to describe things set apart to a holy use. For instance, in Exodus 25:9, keliy describes the various furnishings of the Tabernacle. God tells Moses, "According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments (keliy) thereof, even so shall ye make it." These instruments included the ark, the mercy seat, the cherubim, the table, and the candlestick. Keliy in the Old Testament was something useful, something that furnished out, equipped. When used in worship, these articles and implements were strictly regulated by God, to be made and used according to God's exact pattern.

In due course of time, God gave an expanded pattern of worship to David, along with the prophets Nathan and Gad, with exact instructions for additional keliy for use in the Temple in the worship of God. These were also strictly regulated by God, and would be implements for the sounding of music. 1 Chronicles 15:16: "And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren [to be] the singers with instruments (keliy) of musick, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy." 

So, in the Old Testament, there were keliy for the Tabernacle, keliy for warfare, keliy for farming, keliy for food and eating, keliy for clothing the body, and then, beginning in 1 Chronicles 15:16 with David's appointment of the Levites, keliy for music. All keliy for worship were strictly appointed and regulated by God, whether the candlesticks for the tabernacle or later for the loud-sounding cymbals for the temple. 2 Chronicles 29:25: "And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets."

In the New Testament, the only Greek word that conveys the same sense as keliy is hoplon, which appears once, in Romans 6:13: "Do not present your members to sin as instruments (hoplon). Strong's defines hoplon as "any tool or implement...arms used in warfare, weapons." So hoplon in the New Testament also conveys the idea of a utensil, a tool, something used; even for warfare, as does keliy in some places in the Old.

Now a little about the use of the English word "instrument" to translate keliy. It was surely chosen carefully by the early translators of the English Bible, because at that time, it still conveyed the sense of its roots, which were in the Old French estrument and the Latin instrumentem; its definition was "a tool, apparatus, furniture, dress, document." Instrumentem is from instruere (to instruct, to arrange, to inform, to teach).  We still retain a vestige of this earlier meaning when we speak of surgical instruments, and also, in keeping with the idea of instruction, of legal instruments.

Mostly, we now associate the word instrument with music. But the earlier translators chose the word instrument to translate various instances of the Hebrew keliy because, for them, it still had connotations of being something useful, a tool or an implement; and because of its associations with the ideas of furnishing out and instructing, as the musical instruments were to do for that age of the church.

Hopefully all this helps to show that the musical keliy of  David and the Temple were divinely appointed implements that furnished out the public worship of God for that time, just as the earlier keliy had furnished out public worship in the Tabernacle. Most know and agree that the keliy of the Tabernacle served as mere copies of the heavenly realities they represented. When the heavenly reality came, and was fulfilled in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, so did the need for, and usefulness of, these copies. They were ceremonial, and vanished away. And this is just as true for all the later keliy of the Temple, including its musical keliy. They were commanded for use by the Levites for raising sounds of joy (1 Chronicles 15:16-28) and for giving thanks (2 Chronicles 7:6). The musical keliy were themselves the sound of praise. They served as types and shadows of what was to come at the inauguration of the new and better covenant—  sacrifices of praise and thanks to God from hearts "richly indwelt by the word of Christ;" praises voiced without elaborate ceremony by "singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:18-20, Colossians 3:16).

The lifeless keliy are obsolete in the new covenant, done away with by the accomplishment of Christ. The instruments (hoplon) we now present to God for his service are our living bodies. How privileged we are! Every member of the body of Christ may now serve in this priestly function, once reserved for the Levitical tribe of Israel. Gone are the burdensome mechanical furnishings and helps needed under the old dispensation. It is in spirit and truth, with our bodily members, that we now serve and worship God.

To return to the use of the old covenant keliy is to go backward to a more difficult dispensation. How the Levites who labored under the awful realities of the sacrificial system (which included the playing of the musical keliy) would have rejoiced to see our freedom from the external demands of the ceremonial law, a benefit won by Christ, bestowed upon his New Testament church, and enjoyed by her when she worships God in spirit and in truth!

Old Light on New Worship

I have mentioned this book in a previous post, and I wanted to talk a little more about it. (I need to clarify that Pastor Price does not hold to exclusive psalmody and in fact I don't remember whether he even speaks of singing the Psalms. However, this book is very helpful on wrestling through the issues with musical instruments in worship.)

It's written by a pastor named John Price, who pastors a Baptist congregation in New York. He's not famous, not a celebrity pastor, and hasn't spoken (as far as I know) in any big-name conferences. That in itself doesn't qualify him or disqualify him. I only mention that because in this age of popularity-driven books, DVD's, live simulcast conferences and such, a quiet "no-name's" book about an important and controversial topic isn't likely to cause much of a stir, not enough to filter down to the attention of the average Christian in the average church. But that doesn't mean the book is not sound, helpful and important.

Any book must be judged on its own merit, not by the fame or charisma of the author. The standard by which to judge is, of course, the teaching of Scripture. I believe this book is very Scripturally solid.

Pastor Price makes the case for the fact that God has always regulated the activities of his gathered people. He has always prescribed what is to be done and how. He (God) has never left it to chance, or left it up to us to come up with innovations, bright ideas, or anything else of our own invention. He has made all clear in his word, both in the Old Testament and in the New; but as is often the case, clarity does not equal simple (not in the sense of the doctrine falling effortlessly into our hands).

Just realizing that much—that God has always prescribed for his people the activities that they are to engage in when they meet together as the church—is hugely helpful in causing us to stop short and determine to take a serious look at what we are doing, and why. That realization caused Pastor Price to take a step back, and in the fear of the Lord to check it out! He came up not with new, previously unheard of information, but with old information that has by and large been forgotten.

I won't go on about it in this post, but will just leave it at that. There are very important things to know about the doctrine of the singing of the church, and it takes an understanding of God's prescriptions in both the Old Testament and the New to get them. John Price has laid some very important foundational work in his book, I believe. Is he right in every aspect? It's not for me to say for sure, though I do believe from my own studies that he gets his main emphasis right. I'm convinced that we need to be talking about this in our own churches. Because we care about what God wants and has prescribed, we should be open to reconsidering what we do when we gather as the church.

Singing Together and Musical Instruments

Over the past years and months, I have become an adherent to the regulative principle of worship (i.e., what we do when we gather as the church). I hear a lot of people talking about the regulative principle, but many no longer adhere to the historical understanding of it. The regulative principle is that what we do in worship must be regulated by the word of God; therefore, only what is prescribed in the word of God may be practiced in worship.

Alternatively, the normative principle, which most churches now hold to, says that as long as any practice or activity is not forbidden in Scripture, it may be done in worship as long as it measures up to a denomination's, or local congregation's, criteria. This opens the churches up to whatever practices and activities are approved by its leaders and demanded by the congregation.

My conviction gained from Scripture is that God has always prescribed the lawful practices and activities of the gathered church. In the New Testament no less than in the Old, God's word is very specific about what the church should do. When the Old Testament worship forms passed away, so did its many activities, except for the ones prescriptively described in the New Testament: prayer, praise, singing as prayer and praise, giving, preaching and teaching, breaking bread together/the Lord's supper, water baptism.

I highly recommend this book: Old Light on New Worship: Musical Instruments and the Worship of God, a Theological, Historical and Psychological Study by John Price as a place to begin. Fascinating!!

Here's a website with a lot of good information on the regulative principle, the need for it, and consequence of not adhering to it: Musical Instruments in the Public Worship of God.

Happy researching—I hope you will!